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Noor: world’s largest concentrated solar power plant

The desert is one of the most beautiful places on earth. It’s also one of the harshest and most inhospitable. But now, Morocco’s desert is bringing a new way of life to millions of Moroccans.

With almost 365 days of sunshine, Ouarzazate is the perfect place to harvest sunlight to produce clean renewable electricity.

When completed the Noor complex at Ouarzazate will be the world’s largest concentrated solar power plant. Its three blocks are expected to provide power to 1.1 million Moroccans.

Today, Noor 1 is already up and running with an installed capacity of 160 MW. With half a million mirrors to capture and concentrate the sun’s energy, it covers the area of 4,200 soccer fields. In fact, it is so big, it is visible from space.

Converting the sun’s energy efficiently into electricity is a technical feat: Mirrors focus the sun’s light to heat up a liquid (oil), which when mixed with water, reaches around 400 degrees Celsius. The steam produced from this process is then turned into electricity by three Siemens turbo generator sets. Each one comprises two steam turbines and one generator. The SST-700 and SST-900 steam turbines are built for high efficiency, reliability and uptime. The SST-700 can be used for daily cycling and ultra-rapid starts, as demanded by the solar thermal process.

The renewable power generated by Noor is essential to reach Morocco's goal of 42% renewable energy by 2020. Today, block 1 offsets 240,000 tonnes of CO2 each year, supplying reliable energy for homes and businesses. Thanks to the desert sun, life is changing in Morocco.

Using sunlight to power sustainable development, and improve the quality of life for all Moroccans. That’s Ingenuity for life.

Siemens steam turbines

We offer a comprehensive range of reliable and versatile steam turbines for the power output range from 2 to 250 MW. Our industrial steam turbines are designed for easy constructability, fast start-up and economical operation.